


Something of the Sort

by raidelle



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Emotional Roller Coaster, Final Fantasy VII - Freeform, M/M, Very Minor Hints of Depression
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:00:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23944330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raidelle/pseuds/raidelle
Summary: It was Gratia, a holiday of Thanksgiving, and Cloud is celebrating alone for the fifth year straight after coming back home from the war. Sephiroth and Genesis arrive to spoil his plans and make him an offer.
Relationships: Established Sephiroth/Genesis Rhapsodos, Genesis Rhapsodos/Sephiroth/Cloud Strife, Hints of ASGZC, Sephiroth/Genesis Rhapsodos
Comments: 11
Kudos: 91





	Something of the Sort

**Author's Note:**

> Oh, would you look at that. My very first FFVII fic! Please be gentle. T_T
> 
> Do note that I've only played the OG FFVII and now the remake, so the characterization of Genesis here is a result of what I've gathered from fics and reading up on Wikis. Also, yes, I invented a holiday for the purpose of this fic.
> 
> This is also unbeta'd so please forgive any mistakes you see.
> 
> I do hope you enjoy reading!

Cloud looked morosely at the contents of his freezer. He always missed Tifa during Gratia, partly because she was a great cook and an even better bartender. She always made him feel like someone worth the effort.

He missed her, especially, because Gratia was about thanksgiving and he was—no, is thankful for her friendship through the years. It was hard, being a SOLDIER fresh from the Wutai War, to come home to unfamiliar faces. His mother had died while he was away, and it broke his heart that he couldn’t be there during her last moments, couldn’t be there to bury her. It was Tifa who’d been there for his mother, been there to welcome him back home to Nibelheim. It was Tifa who’d helped him through a difficult, difficult time, in the long months after the war.

Still, he couldn’t tie her down with him. Tifa was destined for great things and her dreams, he’d always believed, would take her places.

Cloud allowed himself a small smile, remembering the message Tifa sent him just the night before. _Banora apples are Lifestream-sent! I’m in love! I'd say I wish you were here but you’ll just whine about the weather. And you have better things to do, so I’ll just wish you a happy Gratia. ;) Love always, Tee._

“Better things to do, huh?” He put his hands on his hips and frowned. “So that’s gotta mean beef over chicken, right?”

He fumbled with the plastic tray of his frozen dinner when he heard quick, sharp raps on his door. “Shit. What the fuck?” He’d _never_ had any guests over for Gratia _ever_ , since he came to live here five years ago, except for when Tifa dropped by last year with a bottle of Cetra Red ( _“For special occasions,”_ she’d said). He tried once to visit old friends, but seeing Sephiroth and Genesis together made him feel like an outsider. They’d been a new couple then and it had been suffocating to be in their presence, especially Genesis who did not know how to do anything but passionately.

The knocks sounded again, more insistent this time. With a sigh of annoyance, Cloud stomped to his living area. Mrs. Barrow from downstairs stopped trying to give him Gratia cake two years ago, so he really couldn’t imagine who could be visiting him right now.

He peeked through the peephole and nearly fell over. “Speak of the devils,” he muttered as he opened the door. “What’re you guys doing here?”

“Hello, Cloud,” Sephiroth greeted him with a nod.

“Good evening to you, too, Cloud. A little birdy told us that your sorry self is spending Gratia alone, so…” Genesis shrugged, and Cloud could never really figure out how everything Genesis did was so damn elegant.

“Gen,” Sephiroth admonished, then turned to Cloud. “Tifa called me,” he said, by way of an explanation.

“Tifa called you?”

“Is that so strange?”

“She’s in Banora,” Cloud said, as if that was enough of a reason for Tifa not to call Cloud’s former commanding officer and said commanding officer’s boyfriend about his… situation.

“And you are here,” Genesis pointed out. “Like you have been for the last five years, as Tifa so kindly informed us. Which, frankly, is unbelievable and unacceptable.”

“Gen,” Sephiroth said again and Genesis, bless his firebrand heart, smiled in apology. “Are you going to let us in, Cloud?” Sephiroth asked now, an unfamiliar gleam in his green eyes.

“Oh. Right. Yeah, sure… uh… come on in,” he said. “Sorry for the, uh… mess.”

Genesis’s eyes went straight to the frozen dinner in Cloud’s hand. “Have any more of that to share?”

Cloud looked down. He hadn’t realized he’d brought it with him. “No, I—”

Sephiroth eased the plastic tray out of Cloud’s cold grip. “Here. Show me to your kitchen and then we can start on dinner.”

“Excuse me?”

Genesis sighed. “Dinner. A proper one to celebrate Gratia.” The plastic grocery bag in his hand crinkled loudly in the hollowness of the apartment.

Cloud glanced at the bag as if he’d never seen one before. He also cursed himself because, apparently, his SOLDIER training was failing him. How the hell had he not noticed what was in Genesis’s hand? “I— what?”

“Come on,” Sephiroth said, steering Cloud away from the door. Genesis trailed behind them as Cloud walked almost dazedly toward his apartment’s excuse for a kitchen.

“Alright. Gen, go sit with Cloud and… catch up. Don’t bother me until dinner is served.”

“Yes, dearest, whatever you say,” Genesis replied in a playful tone.

“You know how to cook?”

“Have a little faith in me, Cloud,” Sephiroth said and Cloud was struck by how gentle, soft even, the former general was. “Now go and entertain Gen for me, will you? He gets restless when no one pays him attention.”

“I heard that, Seph!” Genesis called, already settled on the sofa. “Now come here, dear Cloud, and _entertain me_.”

 _Dear_ Cloud? Had Genesis always used pet names? Cloud could remember him calling Zack “puppy” but he was pretty sure that was as much of a jibe as a term of endearment. Zack _did_ trail after Angeal like a love-sick puppy, during the height of the war. He was sure Zack was still following Angeal after all these years.

“Are you sure you’re gonna be fine here?”

“Yes.” Sephiroth was already rummaging in his cabinets. “But why do you not have a pot?”

“What?” Cloud was bewildered. He _did_ have pot. He used it to cook ramen all the time. “There’s a—”

“This is a saucepan,” Sephiroth said as he waved the said saucepan. “But it will do.” He put his hair up in a bun before filling the saucepan with water on the stove. Cloud stared open-mouthed at the domestic picture Sephiroth made.

Genesis laughed. “Let him be, Cloud. He never got rid of his nit-pickiness after all these years.”

“It’s called being detail-oriented,” came the reply.

Cloud watched Sephiroth for a few more seconds, before finally settling on the sofa with Genesis. He kept what he thought was a respectable distance between them but he still caught a fleeting frown on Genesis’s face. It made him frown, too, but he shrugged it off.

“So… why are you really here? Did Tifa really call you?”

“Ah, no pleasantries then,” Genesis sighed. “Tifa called Seph, yes. But we are here because we wanted to see you,” he said, voice gentle. The last part was spoken with the tone he used when approaching a wounded animal, and it grated on Cloud’s nerves.

“Why now?”

“We’ve come to realize our foolishness.”

“Oh yeah?” Cloud didn’t mean for it to be biting, but it came out that way nonetheless.

“Cloud,” Genesis sighed again. “We fought a war together. I know that isn’t the most conducive environment to cultivate relationships but… it meant something to us. I hope it did to you, too.”

“It did. It _does_ ,” Cloud insisted. “It was just… You and Sephiroth. Zack and Angeal… and I was… you know.” He shrugged.

“I know. We all got caught up in our own little worlds but that’s no excuse for leaving you behind,” Genesis said.

“Not your fault,” Cloud mumbled. “I didn’t exactly make an effort. Didn’t want to get in the way of what you guys have going.”

Genesis laughed, almost self-deprecatingly. “You could never ‘get in the way.’ Not in this lifetime or the next.”

 _What does that mean,_ Cloud wondered. _Why are you telling me this?_ He couldn’t look at Genesis, not just yet, because he was afraid of what he would see.

“Cloud?” Genesis prompted, after long moments of silence.

“Yeah?”

“Will you forgive us for all the years we made you feel invisible and forgotten and unloved?”

That made Cloud look up. “Genesis, you’re not—”

“Seph is too proud to beg. I’m not.” His eyes were intent, boring into Cloud’s own with an emotion he could not name.

“That’s not… not necessary.”

Genesis got up, nevertheless, and moved to kneel in front of Cloud.

“Oh, dear goddess, Genesis. Please stop! Don’t do that. You know I’m… please, stop. There’s nothing to forgive.” Cloud said in a slight panic.

“There is, if you felt you would ‘get in the way’ of me and Seph when the truth is that—”

“Sephiroth!” Cloud nearly yelled. “Do something!”

“Genesis Rhapsodos,” Sephiroth said in an oddly stern but soothing tone. “I will not forgive you if you managed to scare Cloud away before we got to share a Gratia dinner.”

“You just want to impress Cloud because you can’t impress _me_ with your cooking anymore,” Genesis grumbled but complied with Sephiroth’s request nonetheless.

“I can heat up one of those frozen dinners for you instead.”

Cloud turned to look at his makeshift dining area. “Where did you get those? I’m pretty sure I don’t have taper candles in stock.”

“See?” Genesis answered for his boyfriend. “He wants to impress you.”

Sephiroth raised his eyebrows. “If I am?” This was somehow directed to both Genesis and Cloud.

“Um…” was all Cloud was able to say to that.

“Deep inside, he’s worried,” Genesis stage-whispered as he pulled on Cloud’s hand toward the table. “When you take a bite, pretend you like it.”

Oddly enough, Genesis was right. Sephiroth _did_ look worried as Cloud sat and took a long look at the plate in front of him. “Oh,” he said.

“It’s one of the first things Seph learned how to cook,” Genesis explained. “Cheese and pepper pasta is a Nibelheim specialty, yes?”

“Yes it is. It’s just… My mom used to cook this for Gratia.”

Sephiroth coughed. “I may have asked Tifa about that.”

“Right. Um… thank you. This looks good.”

“You’re welcome, Cloud. Shall we, then?”

“Yeah, sure. I mean, it’s your food. I’m just… you know—”

“It’s ours,” Genesis said firmly.

“Yeah, of course.” Cloud nodded and proceeded to eat so he didn’t have to think about Sephiroth and Genesis and “we wanted to see you” and “ours” anymore.  


* * *

  
Their meal was quick. All too soon, with Cloud’s go-ahead, Sephiroth was pouring them each a mug of the Cetra Red. (“Good Gaia, Cloud,” Genesis lamented. “We must get you a set of proper wine glasses soon.”)

“So, Cloud. What are you thankful for this year?” Sephiroth said, his tone matching that unfamiliar glint in his eyes. It was… something Cloud doesn’t have a name for. Fondness, perhaps? Something more?

“Um… well, you know what? Can we… um. Get back to what Genesis and I were—”

“You want me to kneel? Because I would.”

“No!”

“What do you want to know?” Sephiroth put his mug of wine down.

Cloud took a drink. “Why are you here? Why are you here _now_?”

Sephiroth sighed. “Is it truly hard to believe that we wanted to see you? That we missed you?”

“It’s been five years, Sephiroth.”

“It’s a terribly long time to live without someone.”

“And a terribly long time to wait to ask for forgiveness.”

Cloud took another drink, if only to avoid the look in Sephiroth’s eyes. “I already told you, Genesis: there’s nothing to forgive. Not really. I didn’t exactly reach out to you, did I?”

“Because you felt you’d ‘get in the way,” correct? And whose fault was that that you even felt that way in the first place?”

“I’m an unsociable idiot, okay? Always have been,” Cloud grumbled. “Whatever I thought, that’s on me.”

“All right,” Sephiroth said. “Will you forgive us, then, for leaving you alone to think whatever you thought all those years?”

“I was _not_ alone. I had Tifa.”

“Gaia, you are stubborn!” Genesis exclaimed, exasperated.

“Would it be so horrible to have us, too?” Sephiroth countered.

Cloud froze. Here they go again with words that make him _feel_. “What do you mean?”

“We mean that we want you,” Sephiroth said.

“Why?”

“Because there was something missing, Cloud. Genesis and I… all these years together and yet there’s still a space neither of us can fill for the other.”

“I’m… confused. So that’s me? You want… me?”

“Yes.”

“The both of you?”

“Yes.” That was Genesis.

Cloud wrapped his hands tight around his mug and squeezed his eyes shut. There was a strange feeling crawling, bubbling up his throat and he tried all his might to tamp it down. “This is… are you serious?”

“Yes.” That was both of them.

Cloud paused to breathe deep, in through his nose and out through his mouth. He’d gone through a roller coaster of emotions in the past hour and he felt dazed and exhausted. Finally, when he’d caught his breath and he recognized the feeling in his chest, he spoke. “Okay.”

“Okay meaning…?” Genesis prompted.

“Okay meaning ‘let’s give it a try.’” Cloud said. A shrug accompanies his tentative smile.

“Really?”

“Really.” Cloud nodded. “I’ve missed you, too, to be honest. I was just too stubborn and proud to admit it. Besides, Tifa’s been my friend for a long time but that’s all we’ll ever be for each other and I…”

“You’ve been looking for someone who could be something more than a friend?” Sephiroth asked, and Cloud’s heart almost broke at the hope he could hear in the general’s voice.

“Something of the sort,” he said, and Sephiroth reached for his hand. 

Genesis reached for the other. “You know, you haven’t actually said that you’ve forgiven us, dear.”

“Goddess, Genesis!” Cloud laughed. “There’s nothing to forgive.”

“Please?”

Cloud laughed. “Only if you forgive me for being an unsociable idiot.”

“Done.”

“Sephiroth? Do you forgive me, too?”

“Of course.” He rose to stand behind Cloud, wrapped his arms around the younger man, and planted a kiss on tufts of blonde hair.

“I like your hair like that, by the way. It looks good on you,” Cloud said, craning his neck to look up at Sephiroth.

“Thank you.”

“Oh he knows it,” Genesis chuckled. “As I said, he wants to impress you.”

“Shut up, Gen.”

“You _do_ know that I’ve always been impressed by you guys, right?”

“Take me to bed and you’ll be impressed even more,” Genesis threw him a wink.

“Please, no. Not tonight,” Cloud complained. “I’m kind of worn-out, to be honest. Didn’t expect to be put through a wringer of emotions. You can stay the night, though. Um. If you want.”

Genesis hummed. “Oh I want, indeed. But come, give me a hug. You’ll feel instantly better.” He extended his arms from where he sat.

“No,” Sephiroth clutched at Cloud. “Not done hugging him yet.”

“Goddess, you’re just like the puppy when he wants to make love.”

Cloud nearly choked in surprise. “What?”

“Ah…” Sephiroth said after an awkward pause. “We… have to talk about that later. When Zack and Angeal arrive.”

“Are you _all_ together?” Cloud asked, incredulous.

As if on cue, there was yet another series of knocks on Cloud’s door.

“I think you better answer the door, Gen.”

**Author's Note:**

> What do you think? ;) Kudos and comments are very much welcome.
> 
> You can find me on
> 
> Twitter: @raidelle3573  
> Discord: @raidelle#3573  
> Tumblr: @raidelle


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